CJTranslations

QUOTES BY TOPIC

[H]aving both the key Of officer and office,
set all hearts i’th’ state To what tune pleased his ear.

PLAY: The Tempest
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Prospero
CONTEXT:
PROSPERO
Being once perfected how to grant suits,
How to deny them, who t’advance and who
To trash for overtopping, new created
The creatures that were mine, I say, or changed ’em,
Or else new formed ’em; having both the key
Of officer and office, set all hearts i’th’ state
To what tune pleased his ear, that now he was
The ivy which had hid my princely trunk
And sucked my verdure out on’t. Thou attend’st not!
MIRANDA
O, good sir, I do.

DUTCH:
Eens goed verstaand, hoe men verzoeken gunt,
Hoe weigert, wien bevord’ring dient, wiens groei,
Te welig, knotting eischt, herschiep hij zich
De wezens, eens de mijne, ‘k zeg, vervormde
Of schiep ze op nieuw; daar hij den sleutel had
Van ambtenaar en ambt, zoo stemde hij
Elk hart op zulk een toon als hem geviel;
Hij werd het klimop, dat mijn vorstenstam
Omwond, mijn sappen zoog.
Dat ik al wat der wereld was, verzuimde,
Mij wijdde aan de eenzaamheid, mijn geest verrijkte

MORE:
Trash=Put down (Trash=to rein in a dog (OED)), keep in check
Overtopping=Being over-ambitious
O’erprized=Overrated
Closeness=Solitude, recluseness
Verdure=reshness, life and vigour
Retired=Withdrawn
Compleat:
Trash=Lompige waar, ondeugend goed
Trash (bad fruit)=Slegte vrucht

Topics: ambition, status, learning/education, understanding, duty

A thing more made of malice than of duty

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 3.5
SPEAKER: Cymbeline
CONTEXT:
CYMBELINE
Lucius hath wrote already to the emperor
How it goes here. It fits us therefore ripely
Our chariots and our horsemen be in readiness:
The powers that he already hath in Gallia
Will soon be drawn to head, from whence he moves
His war for Britain.
QUEEN
‘Tis not sleepy business;
But must be look’d to speedily and strongly.
CYMBELINE
Our expectation that it would be thus
Hath made us forward. But, my gentle queen,
Where is our daughter? She hath not appear’d
Before the Roman, nor to us hath tender’d
The duty of the day: she looks us like
A thing more made of malice than of duty:
We have noted it. Call her before us; for
We have been too slight in sufferance.
QUEEN
Royal sir,
Since the exile of Posthumus, most retired
Hath her life been; the cure whereof, my lord,
‘Tis time must do. Beseech your majesty,
Forbear sharp speeches to her: she’s a lady
So tender of rebukes that words are strokes
And strokes death to her.

DUTCH:
Ons dunkt, zij is
Uit boosheid meer dan volgzaamheid gevormd;
Dit hebben wij bespeurd. — Ga, roep haar hier;
Wij waren te toegevend.

MORE:
Ripely=Immediately
Drawn to head=Mobilised
Sleepy=Non-urgent
Forward=Prepared
Tender the duty of the day=Wish good morning
Slight=Easy-going
Sufferance=Tolerance
Compleat:
When things are ripe for action=Als het tijd is om aan ‘t werk te gaan
Forward=Voorbaarig, rypostig, voorlyk
To make slight=Iets klein achten
Sufferance=Verdraagzaamheid, toegeevendheid

Topics: conflict, preparation, duty, business

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

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

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

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

Topics: duty, conflict, order/society

I do perceive here a divided duty

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

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

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

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

I owe him little duty, and less love.

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 4.4
SPEAKER: Somerset
CONTEXT:
LUCY
And York as fast upon your grace exclaims;
Swearing that you withhold his levied host,
Collected for this expedition.
SOMERSET
York lies; he might have sent and had the horse;
I owe him little duty, and less love;
And take foul scorn to fawn on him by sending.
LUCY
The fraud of England, not the force of France,
Hath now entrapp’d the noble-minded Talbot:
Never to England shall he bear his life;
But dies, betray’d to fortune by your strife.

DUTCH:
York liegt; ‘k had ze afgestaan, had hij gevraagd;
‘k Ben hem geen dienst, nog minder liefde schuldig;
‘t Waar’ laag, ‘t waar’ vleien, zoo ik zelf haar zond.

MORE:

Levied host=Raised army (some versions have ‘levied horse’, interpreted as horsemen)
Expedition=A warlike enterprise
Sent and had=Sent for and have had
Foul=Disgraceful, derogatory
Scorn=Disdain, contempt
Fawn upon=To wheedle, to cringe, to be overcourteous; to court servilely and in the manner of a dog
Fraud=Falseness, faithlessness

Compleat:
Host (army)=Een heir, heirleger
Expedition=Een krygsverrichting
Scorn=Versmaading, verachting
To fawn upon=Vleijen, streelen

Topics: deceit, failure, conflict, duty, debt/obligation

I will think you the most pathetical break-promise

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Rosalind
CONTEXT:
ROSALIND
Ay, go your ways, go your ways. I knew what you would
prove. My friends told me as much, and I thought no
less. That flattering tongue of yours won me. ‘Tis but
one cast away, and so, come, death. Two o’clock is your
hour?
ORLANDO
Ay, sweet Rosalind.
ROSALIND
By my troth, and in good earnest, and so God mend me,
and by all pretty oaths that are not dangerous, if you
break one jot of your promise or come one minute behind
your hour, I will think you the most pathetical
break-promise and the most hollow lover and the most
unworthy of her you call Rosalind that may be chosen out
of the gross band of the unfaithful. Therefore beware
my censure, and keep your promise.

DUTCH:
Bij mijn eer en trouw, en in allen ernst, en zoo waar de Hemel mij bijsta, en bij alle kleine eeden, die niet gevaarlijk zijn, als gij een tittel van uw beloften breekt, of één minuut over uw uur komt, dan acht ik u den meest snoevenden eedverkrachter;

MORE:
Go your ways=Go on
So God mend me=A mild oath
Behind your hour=Late
Pathetical=Pathetic (wretched and deplorable)
Gross=Entire
Compleat:
Pathetical=Beweegelyk, hartroerend, zielroerend
Gross=Gros

Topics: debt/obligation, time, contract, duty, promise

Men should be what they seem

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

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

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

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

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

Nothing will come of nothing: speak again

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: King Lear
CONTEXT:
LEAR
(…) To thee and thine hereditary ever
Remain this ample third of our fair kingdom,
No less in space, validity, and pleasure
Than that conferred on Goneril.—But now, our joy,
Although our last and least, to whose young love
The vines of France and milk of Burgundy
Strive to be interessed. What can you say to draw
A third more opulent than your sisters? Speak.
CORDELIA
Nothing, my lord.
LEAR
Nothing?
CORDELIA
Nothing.
LEAR
How? Nothing will come of nothing. Speak again.
CORDELIA
Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave
My heart into my mouth. I love your majesty
According to my bond, no more nor less.
LEAR
How, how, Cordelia? Mend your speech a little,
Lest you may mar your fortunes.

DUTCH:
Door niets wordt niets verkregen; spreek nog eens.

MORE:
Proverb: Nothing will come of nothing (Ex nihilo nihil fit)
Mend your speech=revise your statement, think about what you’ve said
In the context of King Lear telling Cordelia she’ll be disinherited if she doesn’t speak more kindly.
Schmidt:
Heave=Raise, lift (Poss. ref. to Eccles. 21:26 = The heart of fools is in their mouth: but the mouth of the wise is in their heart.)
Bond=(Filial) obligation
To be interessed=To have a right or share (OED). Often amended to ‘interested’ in more modern versions.
Draw=Win (gambling metaphor)
A third more opulent=not equal thirds
Compleat:
Bond=Verbinding, obligatie
Interessed=Betrokken, gegreepen, een part in hebbende.
To interess oneself in a matter=Zich aan eene zaak laaten gelegen zyn.

Topics: honesty, truth, duty, relationship, proverbs and idioms, still in use

Some about him have too lavishly Wrested his meaning and authority.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Lancaster
CONTEXT:
I like them all, and do allow them well,
And swear here by the honour of my blood,
My father’s purposes have been mistook,
And some about him have too lavishly
Wrested his meaning and authority.
My lord, these griefs shall be with speed redressed;
Upon my soul, they shall. If this may please you,
Discharge your powers unto their several counties,
As we will ours, and here, between the armies,
Let’s drink together friendly and embrace,
That all their eyes may bear those tokens home
Of our restorèd love and amity.

DUTCH:
En enk’len om hem hebben al te stout
Des konings meening en bevel verdraaid.

MORE:

Discharge=dismiss, disperse

Schmidt:
Amity=good understanding, friendship
To wrest=turn the wrong way, misinterpret
Too lavishly wrested=misinterpret to advantage, overstepped
(Ill-wresting=misinterpreting to disadvantage)

Onions:
Shakespeare first to use discharge to mean ‘letting off a firearm’; ’emission’; ‘payment’; ‘performance or execution’.

Compleat:
To wrest=verdraaijen, wringen
To wrest one’s words maliciously=Iemands woorden kwaadaardig verdraaijen
To wrest a thing from one=Iemand iets ontwringen, iemand iets afpersen

Topics: friendship, leadership, duty, resolution

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

That sir which serves and seeks for gain,
And follows but for form,
Will pack when it begins to rain
And leave thee in the storm.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Fool
CONTEXT:
That sir which serves and seeks for gain,
And follows but for form,
Will pack when it begins to rain
And leave thee in the storm.
But I will tarry. The fool will stay.
And let the wise man fly.
The knave turns fool that runs away;
The fool, no knave, perdie.

DUTCH:
Wie zich door geldzucht laat bewegen
en werkt slechts voor de vorm,
gaat ervandoor bij de eerste regen
en laat jou in de storm.

MORE:

Serves and seeks for gain=Self-serving individuals
To rain=A fall in fortune
Schmidt:
Form=Show, appearance
Tarry=to continue in a place, to remain, not to go away
Perdie (or perdy)=In sooth
Compleat:
Tarry (behind) (stay or remain)=Blyven, Agterblyven
Self-seeking=Inhaalend, voor zich zelfs zorgende
Gainery or gainage, these two law words signify the profit most properly that comes by the tillage of land held by the baser kind of fokemen [menfolk] or villains=Deeze twee woorden betekenen allereigentlykst het voordeel dat men trekt van de landen, die door het schuim van volk bebouwt worden.

Topics: loyalty, wisdom, duty, ambition

The custom of request you have discharged

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Sicinius
CONTEXT:
MENENIUS
You have stood your limitation; and the tribunes
Endue you with the people’s voice: remains
That, in the official marks invested, you
Anon do meet the senate.
CORIOLANUS
Is this done?
SICINIUS
The custom of request you have discharged:
The people do admit you, and are summon’d
To meet anon, upon your approbation.
CORIOLANUS
Where? at the senate-house?
SICINIUS
There, Coriolanus.
CORIOLANUS
May I change these garments?
SICINIUS
You may, sir.

DUTCH:
t Gebruik van stemmen vragen had zijn eisch;
Het volk geeft u zijn ja, en komt dra saam,
Waar ‘t van zijn keus getuigt en u bekrachtigt.

MORE:
Limitation=Allotted time
Endue=Endow
Voice=Vote
Official marks=Insignia of office
Anon=Immediately
Compleat:
Limitation=Eene bepaaling, afpaaling
To endue=Aandoen, begaaven
Voice=Stem, recht van stemmen
Anon=Daadelyk, straks, aanstonds

Topics: order/status, authority, leadership, duty

The first bringer of unwelcome news Hath but a losing office

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Northumberland
CONTEXT:
Yet, for all this, say not that Percy’s dead.
I see a strange confession in thine eye.
Thou shak’st thy head and hold’st it fear or sin
To speak a truth. If he be slain, say so.
The tongue offends not that reports his death;
And he doth sin that doth belie the dead,
Not he which says the dead is not alive.
Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news
Hath but a losing office, and his tongue
Sounds ever after as a sullen bell
Remembered tolling a departing friend.

DUTCH:
Toch, de eerste brenger van onwelkom nieuws
Heeft een ondankb’ren post, en later klinkt
Zijn tong steeds als een doffe klank en doet
Ons de uitvaart eens verscheiden vriends herdenken.

MORE:

Proverb: To belie the dead is a sin

Strange=Reluctant, uncompliant
Hold=Believe to be
Belie=Slander
Losing office=Thankless task
Sullen=Mournful

Compleat:
To hold a thing to be true=Iets staande houden of verdedigen, waar te zyn
Thankless=Ondankbaar, geen dankens waard
Office (service)=Dienst; (part or duty)=Plicht

Topics: duty, memory

Thou art not for the fashion of these times, where none will sweat but for promotion

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Orlando
CONTEXT:
ORLANDO
O good old man, how well in thee appears
The constant service of the antique world,
When service sweat for duty, not for meed.
Thou art not for the fashion of these times,
Where none will sweat but for promotion,
And having that do choke their service up
Even with the having. It is not so with thee.
But, poor old man, thou prun’st a rotten tree
That cannot so much as a blossom yield
In lieu of all thy pains and husbandry.
But come thy ways. We’ll go along together,
And ere we have thy youthful wages spent,
We’ll light upon some settled low content.
ADAM
Master, go on, and I will follow thee
To the last gasp, with truth and loyalty.
From seventeen years till now almost fourscore
Here livèd I, but now live here no more.
At seventeen years, many their fortunes seek,
But at fourscore, it is too late a week.
Yet fortune cannot recompense me better
Than to die well, and not my master’s debtor.

DUTCH:
Gij volgt niet, neen, de mode dezer dagen,
Nu niemand zwoegen wil, dan om wat winst,
En hij, die winst bekomt, in ‘t voordeel zelf
Zijn ijver smoort

MORE:
Constant=Faithful
Antic=Ancient; (O. Edd. promiscuously antick and antique, but always accented on the first syllable), adj. belonging to the times, or resembling the manners of antiquity
Sweat=Toil, labour
Constant=Faithful
Choke up (Reflectively)=Oppress, make away with, kill; Stop, cease
Low content=Humble contentment
Meed=Reward, recompense, hire
Compleat:
Meed=Belooning, vergelding, verdiensten
Constant=Standvastig, bestending, gestadig
To choke=Verstkken, verwurgen
Contentment=Vergenoeging, vergenoegdheyd, voldoening

Topics: duty, age/experience, work, loyalty, achievement, fashion/trends

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

To mock the expectation of the world, To frustrate prophecies, and to raze out Rotten opinion,

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Prince Hal
CONTEXT:
There is my hand.
You shall be as a father to my youth,
My voice shall sound as you do prompt mine ear,
And I will stoop and humble my intents
To your well-practiced wise directions.—
And, princes all, believe me, I beseech you:
My father is gone wild into his grave,
For in his tomb lie my affections,
And with his spirit sadly I survive
To mock the expectation of the world,
To frustrate prophecies, and to raze out
Rotten opinion, who hath writ me down
After my seeming. The tide of blood in me
Hath proudly flowed in vanity till now.
Now doth it turn and ebb back to the sea,
Where it shall mingle with the state of floods
And flow henceforth in formal majesty.
Now call we our high court of parliament,
And let us choose such limbs of noble counsel
That the great body of our state may go
In equal rank with the best governed nation

DUTCH:
En ‘k overleef hem ernstig, met zijn geest,
Om dwaas te maken, wat de wereld wacht,
Profeten te beschamen, en de meening,
Die, voos, alleen naar mijnen schijn, mij boekte,
Te niet te doen.

MORE:

Intent=Intention
Affections=Wild inclinations
Raze out=Erase
Mock=Flout
Rotten=Unwholesome
Seeming=Outward appearance
Vanity=Folly, futility
Proudly=Imperiously, overbearingly
Limbs=Members

Compleat:
Intent=Oogmerk, einde, opzet
To raze out=Uitschrabben, doorhaalen, uitkladden, uitveegen
A man rotten to the core=Een man die van binnen niet deugt
Proudly=Hovaardiglyk, verwaandelyk, hoogmoediglyk
Limbs=Leden

Topics: work, integrity, duty

Twitting me with perjury

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 3
ACT/SCENE: 5.5
SPEAKER: Clarence
CONTEXT:
CLARENCE
Untutor’d lad, thou art too malapert.
PRINCE EDWARD
I know my duty; you are all undutiful:
Lascivious Edward, and thou perjured George,
And thou misshapen Dick, I tell ye all
I am your better, traitors as ye are:
And thou usurp’st my father’s right and mine.
KING EDWARD IV
Take that, thou likeness of this railer here.
GLOUCESTER
Sprawl’st thou? Take that, to end thy agony.
CLARENCE
And there’s for twitting me with perjury.

DUTCH:
En dit, wijl gij van eedbreuk mij beticht!

MORE:

Malapert=Impudent
Undutiful= Not performing duties
Railer=Person who rants, scolds
Sprawl=Writhing (still alive)
Twit=To reproach, accuse

Compleat:
To twit in the teeth=Verwyten
Twitting=Verwyting, verwytende
Malapert=Moedwillig, stout, baldaadig
Undutiful=Ongehoorzaam, ondienstwillig
To rail=Schelden
To twit in the teeth=Verwyten
Twitting=Verwyting, verwytende

Topics: order/society, blame, duty, truth

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: King
CONTEXT:
(…) Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast
Seal up the shipboy’s eyes, and rock his brains
In cradle of the rude imperious surge
And in the visitation of the winds,
Who take the ruffian billows by the top,
Curling their monstrous heads and hanging them
With deafening clamor in the slippery clouds
That with the hurly death itself awakes?
Canst thou, O partial sleep, give thy repose
To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude,
And, in the calmest and most stillest night,
With all appliances and means to boot,
Deny it to a king? Then, happy low, lie down.
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

DUTCH:
Hard ligt het hoofd, omsloten door een kroon.

MORE:

Warburton says that “Happy low, lie down!” is a corruption of “Happy lowly clown”. These lines make the lines as follows: “If sleep will fly a king and consort itself with beggars, then happy the lowly clown, and uneasy the crowned head.”

Appliance=Devices, appointments
To boot=In addition
Hurly=Hurly-burly, tumult
Low=Low-ranking persons

Compleat:
Hurly-burly=Een gestommel, dedrang, oproer
What will you give me to boot if we exchange?=Wat wil je my toegeeven indien wy ruilen?

Topics: conscience, leadership, duty, prder/society, status

We are not ourselves
When nature, being oppressed, commands the mind
To suffer with the body.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: King Lear
CONTEXT:
Infirmity doth still neglect all office
Whereto our health is bound. We are not ourselves
When nature, being oppressed, commands the mind
To suffer with the body. I’ll forbear,
And am fallen out with my more headier will
To take the indisposed and sickly fit
For the sound man.

DUTCH:
Wij zijn onszelf niet als
natuur ’t benauwd krijgt en de geest beveelt
te lijden met ons vlees.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Infirmity=Disease
Office= Duties, obligations
Compleat:
Office (part, or duty)=Plicht.
He did his office=Hy nam zyn ampt of plicht waar

Topics: wellbeing, debt/obligation, duty

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile.
Filths savor but themselves

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Albany
CONTEXT:
Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile.
Filths savor but themselves. What have you done?
Tigers, not daughters, what have you performed?
A father, and a gracious agèd man,
Whose reverence even the head-lugged bear would lick,
Most barbarous, most degenerate, have you madded.

DUTCH:
Verstand en goedheid zijn voor het lage laag: vuiligheid geniet alleen van zich zelf./
Wijsheid en goedheid zijn den lagen laag .
‘t Vuile lust slechts het vuile.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Savour=Like, relish
Head-lugged=Pulled, seized, by the ears
To mad=To madden
Reverence=A character entitled to particular regard
Compleat:
Lug (of the ear)=Het oor-lapje
To lug by the ears=Bij de ooren trekken
To lug (hale or tug)=Sleepen, voorttrekken
To lug one to the gallows=Iemand naar de galg sleepen

Topics: wisdom, good and bad, duty, ingratitude, failure